Monday, June 10, 2002		Kids chat

HELLO! Welcome back to our weekly meeting at Kids Chat point. There is a lot of fun in the air as World Cup soccer is on and to add to the fun the weather is also not so bad with the occasional shower. Lets listen in on our friends Windy, Cliparti and Fluppy and see what do they have for us.

Fluppy: Hey, friends! Got a news to tell!

Windy: Are your results declared, and you have barely managed to pass?

Fluppy: Humph! Same old negative thinking. Anyway, you won't go high with negative thinking, Windy. You have got to have a positive attitude in life. Anyway, for your information, I have not just passed but have passed first-class first with two bodyguards in some subjects.

Cliparti: You have said a million dollar thing. One must have positive attitude in life. But what's this "first-class first with two bodyguards?"

Fluppy: Hey, you could not guess it?

Windy: Sounds like something out of this world, Fluppy.

Fluppy: As I told you, my result is out and I have scored bull's eye, i.e., 100 marks in Mathematics. So is that not first-class first with two bodyguards?

Cliaprti: That's brilliant, Fluppy! You have really done a good job. Good show. Congrats!

Windy: Hey, Fluppy! That's really wonderful, you have really done a good job.

Fluppy: Thanks, friends! But I owe my success somewhat to you guys also. You told me of some nice sites, which not only raised my interest in mathematics, but also helped me in improving my math skills.

Windy: Oh, that's even better.

Cliparti: So guys, when the mood is getting so study oriented, why not talk about studies today as it has been quite a while since we've been having fun.

Fluppy: That's a good idea and I am well prepared, too.

Windy: So that means you have dug out some information already.

Fluppy: Yeah! That's right. I have found this site http://www.thinkquest.org/library/lib/
site_sum_outside.html?tname=4471&cid=2&url=4471/. It is a wonderful site and is for fourth graders who want to improve their math problem-solving skills for school or for competitions like Math Olympiad. Fourth grader here does not mean the duffers, but students of standard four. Ha, ha, ha!

This site has a lot of interesting information for kids and has several libraries.

Cliparti: Oh, that must be a very good site, as it will help our friends in improving their mathematics skills in interesting ways. However, I have also found a very good piece of information for our friends. This site can be reached at http://www.stfx.ca/special/mathproblems. It contains word problems for students and teachers. The problems are classified into grade levels from Grade 5 to Grade 12. THIS IS NOT A TEST, but a set of carefully selected problems which can help you improve your problem-solving skills-if you try to carefully think about how you would solve each problem, and once you have found the solution, you make sure that you understand all parts of the solution. You can try any problem you like and if it is a little difficult, you can get helpful hints by following the hints link. Overall, it can make academics fun.

Hey, fun reminds me that the World Cup soccer fever is on and soon we are going to have some very interesting matches. You try these sites at leisure and watch the World Cup in the meantime. We would be back next week with more information and fun. So long!

— Ira Verma